Just changed the water pump on a minivan
 

In-laws old 2000 Chrysler T&C limited with the 3.8L six.

Brand new pump cost.......$17. Yea that's right, $17. How would you like to try and make money manufacturing those?

I spent more on a tube of gasket sealant and a bottle of antifreeze :)

Perhaps they misplaced the decimal?
Jim

Considering you get $11.00 for the core exchange... a $6.00 water pump is the best deal going on.
Really tho... did they offer a core exchange?

Those things probably go bad so often that they make it up in volume (that and they were subsidized by the bail out). :D

Just priced out a brand new carb for my Stihl chainsaw.............the new emission controled i-smart auto fuel air/ratio carbs gum up easy, and no you don't get a hi/lo speed air fuel screw to adjust themmmmmm

stoopid stoopid stoopid. So basically if you get a speck of dirt or varnish in a carb passage, it's a disposable carb.

only $30 for a brand new carb.

ONLY $30??? why rebuild at that price? Geez on ebay $30 for the carb, or buy the gasket/diaphram kits for $20.


grins, forkthatnonsense. A Guy on youtube had a video on how to take it all apart for complete tear down and clean.

1/2 hour and a dozen squirts of carb cleaner (didn't even buy a kit) my saw never has ran so good.


Kids today, (okay, maybe only 85%) wouldn't even know how to change a carb, or what a carb even IS with fuel injection ran everything............and wut the heck is air/fuel lean/rich dad?

sigh.

but just like a $8 harbor freight die-grinder or air-ratchet air tool (fairly high precision high rpm tolerance of an air vane motor to CNC machine) , they have to tool up for it, buy raw material, machine it, pay labor, ship it from china to the USA, then inventory it in a store, and sell it, for $8, AND make a profit?


But that $17 water pump the OP mentioned, would be $117 at a repair shop, with 2.5 hours labor on top of it for $400 out the door..............

3.8 , That is the easy one to do too. Undo the belt, remove the pulley, pump off, pump on, all back together in under an hour. Like working on a lawn tractor. You had a good day .,

That is amazing that a chrysler mini van is still worth fixing after 12 years, even if it only costs $17. That's enough to total most of them IMO.

I bought one new in the mid 90's, traded the POS in at 45k miles and got a sienna. 100 times better.

$17? how is that possible? if they sold it to you for that much..what is wholesale?

crazy!

Yea it was pretty easy, I was surprised.

I put new front brake pads on my dads Ford Exploder
The FLAPS asked if i wanted the "premium" ones or the standard pads
I asked how much for the premium pads.....
......9 bucks
The standard pads were 6 bucks
I asked if that was for each pad, no he said, all 4 pads

I paid 12 bucks for the pads on the front of my El Camino back in 1993. Lifetime garuntee. I have worn them out many times in 300K miles. 12 bucks was a bargain. I did the same thing with the water pump, alternator, starter and heater core and lots of other parts.

I just bought a pair of new headlight assemblies for a 1993 Toyota Corolla - $55.00.

Original list was $384.

I've had 5 of them. ALL of them have gone at least 250,000 miles. ALL of them had a transmission at 70,000 miles. I have one now, a 99 with a 3.0 mitsubishi engine. Only 71,000 on the clock, old people owned it before me. I had to change the oil 2 times in a couple hundred miles, replace a shift sensor, brakes and tires. I had to drive it like it was stolen for a while to get the old people out of the motor and trans to "learn" my habits, but I'm sure it will hit the quarter million mark also.

AT one time I would BUY them with 100K on them and drive them until they dropped dead.

Yea, my in-laws love them too. This one they bought new, then a 2011 and another 2007 I think for their extra vehicle. There are some definite "chit-box" like characteristics but for what they are trying to do...they do it pretty well. Plenty of rattles, buzzes and whatnot but they go down the road.

They do offer a factory reman but they want $32 for that ($5 core). So $10 more for a "factory" part.